Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a breast thickness measuring apparatus and a breast thickness measuring method for measuring the thickness of a breast, which is compressed between a compression plate and a support table. The present invention also concerns a radiographic image capturing system for capturing a radiographic image of a breast.
Description of the Related Art
Heretofore, it has been customary to capture a radiographic image of a breast of a subject with a mammographic apparatus, by placing the breast on a support table, compressing the breast with a compression plate, irradiating the breast with radiation emitted from a radiation source, and generating a radiographic image of the breast with a radiographic image generator on the basis of radiation that has passed through the breast.
Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2010-183965 discloses that in order to acquire a good radiographic image, a compression plate is marked with a marker, and a positional deviation of a radiation source from a normal position (proper focused position) with respect to a radiographic image generator is calculated on the basis of the position of a marker image, which is included in a radiographic image, thereby allowing the position of the radiation source to be adjusted to the focused position. Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2006-280444 reveals that the spacing between upper and lower compression plates between which the breast is compressed, i.e., the thickness of the breast that is compressed between the upper and lower compression plates, is calculated from a plurality of tomosynthetically produced sliced images.